Method and system for configuring a client on host devices by utilizing an interface between a configuration application and host device drivers on a configuring device

ABSTRACT

A system and method for configuring a client on a host device using a configuration application on a configuring device, the system comprising: a link between the configuring device and the host device; host drivers for communicating between the host device and the configuring device over the link; and an interface between the host drivers and the configuration application, wherein said interface allows said configuration application to be independent of the host drivers while allowing the configuration application to configure the client.

FIELD OF THE APPLICATION

The present application deals with a method and system for configuring acommunications client on a host device and, more specifically, toconfiguring a communications client using a standard configurationapplication and the host device's drivers.

BACKGROUND

In a host device, it is sometimes desirable to add a client onto thehost to perform functionality that the host normally would not include.This could, for example, include the addition of a data client onto amobile device. Other examples of adding a client to host device would,however, be known to those skilled in the art.

A configuration application for the client allows parameters to be setto ensure the proper functioning of the client. For example, in a clientin which secure communications needs to be ensured, an encryption keycould be set for the client to allow encrypted communications between aserver and the client.

A host device typically includes a communication means for communicatingwith the device from an external source. Such external sources include,for example, personal computers with configuration programs on them.Drivers are needed on these external devices in order to communicatewith the host device.

A problem with configuring a client that resides on a host device isthat the drivers for each host device will be different and, therefore,the client configuration application needs to be changed for eachdifferent host device to allow communication with that host device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present system and method provides an abstract layer between aclient configuration application and a set of host drivers in order toallow the configuration of a client on a host device without having tochange the client configuration application. The client on the hostdevice can thereby be configured regardless of the specific physicallink between the host device and the configuring device.

A series of calls made between the client configuration application andthe host drivers are defined in this abstract layer in order to ensurethat the client configuration application has access to the client onthe host device. These calls can be uniform regardless of the hostdevice by having an abstract interface layer between the clientconfiguration application and the host drivers.

The present application therefore provides a system for configuring aclient on a host device using a configuration application on aconfiguring device, the system comprising: a link between theconfiguring device and the host device; host drivers for communicatingbetween the host device and the configuring device over the link; and aninterface between the host drivers and the configuration application,wherein said interface allows said configuration application to beindependent of the host drivers while allowing the configurationapplication to configure the client.

The present application further provides a method for configuring aclient on a host device from a configuration application on aconfiguring device, the host device being linked to the configurationdevice, the method comprising the steps of: adding a set of host driversto the configuration device specific for the host device and link; andproviding an interface between the configuration application and the setof host drivers, the interface being adapted to communicate with thehost drivers, wherein the configuration application can communicate withthe client without changing the configuration application for the hostdevice or set of host drivers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present system and method will be better understood with referenceto the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the components and data flow accordingto the present system and method;

FIG. 2 is an example of data calls defined in the abstract layer betweenthe client configuration application and the host drivers;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example architecture of a client on ahost device; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a host mobile station.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The system and method below will be described with relation to a dataclient on a host mobile device. However, this is not meant to limit thescope of the present system and method and other clients and hosts areconsidered to be within the scope of the present application. The use ofa data client on a host device is used for illustration only.

The present system and method is directed to the configuration of aclient on a host device. A data client will need to be configured for avariety of reasons from a configuration device such as a laptop or adesktop computer. For example, in a data client configuration parameterscould include an encryption key for secure communication between aserver and the host device and, ultimately, the client on the hostdevice. Other configuration parameters could include a service book toset the server identifier that the client should communicate with. Aconfiguration tool could also include a back-up/restore for client datasuch as e-mail or calendar events that a user wishes to restore or save.

Reference is made to FIG. 1. A client configuration application 4 is anapplication used to configure the parameters of a client. As indicatedabove, these could include encryption keys, backups, restores, servicebooks or other parameters.

A client configuration application 4 is located on a configurationdevice 2 and would normally communicate with a client 15 on a nativedevice (not shown) through native drivers 6. This is only available whenthe client is on its own device, and not on a host device

If the client is instead configured to reside on a host device 8 theconfiguration device 2 will need to communicate with host device 8. Thisis accomplished through the use of drivers that the host device willrecognize. In the preferred embodiment host drivers 10 are used tocommunicate with host device 8. Host drivers are known and reside onconfiguration device 2.

Configuration device 2 uses host drivers 10 to communicate over whateverphysical link is available for the host device 8. This could include,but is not limited to, Universal Serial Bus (USB), Bluetooth, IrDA andserial ports.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, various host devices 8could be used. Each host device further could have a different physicallink between the device and configuration device 2. Each host device 8could also have different host drivers to communicate through thatphysical link.

If client configuration application 4 needs to communicate with aclient, regardless of what host 8 the client is on, it is, undesirablethat client configuration application 4 be re-written for each hostdevice 8. Client configuration application 4 would continually need tobe updated to allow communication with new devices or upgraded devices.

The present system and method therefore provides an interface 12 betweena client configuration application 4 and host drivers 10. Interface 12is an abstract layer used to convert calls by the client configurationapplication to a client device into calls to the host device 8. Theadvantage of adding interface 12 is that very little change needs to bemade to existing client configuration application 4 and that any host 8can be used merely by substituting a different implementation ofinterface 12.

In this way, if the client is on a first host device 8, a firstinterface implementation could be used. If a second host device isprovided with a client, configuration device 2 merely adds anotherinterface implementation 12 for the second host device, and the clientconfiguration application 4 uses the second interface implementation 12to communicate with the second host device 8.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, a single configurationdevice 2 can be used to configure clients on a variety of host devices8. When configuration device 2 is used to configure multiple hostdevices 8, multiple interface implementations 12 are added or present onconfiguration device 2.

Reference is now made to FIG. 2. In order to provide communicationsbetween client configuration application 4 and host drivers 10,interface 12 includes a number of calls to host drivers 10 to allowcommunication with host device 8. FIG. 2 shows an example of functioncalls defined in the interface between client configuration applicationand the host drivers that could be used to send and receive data and toknow the device status of the host device 8 within client configurationapplication 4. Other data calls would be known to those skilled in theart and could be used instead of the example of FIG. 2.

In FIG. 2, interface 12 first sends a start message to host drivers 10.This indicates to host drivers 10 that client configuration applicationhas started and is awaiting to configure client 15 on host device 8.

When host device 8 is connected to configuration device 2, host drivers10 learn of this connection and descend a device status (connected)message to client configuration application 4. Client configurationapplication 4 then knows that host device 8 is connected and thatconfiguration for client 15 can occur.

In the example of FIG. 2, client configuration application 4 throughinterface 12 then uses a send command to host drivers 10. Host drivers10 conveys data included in this send command to client 15 on hostdevice 8 and a sent status message is sent back from host drivers 10 tointerface 12. A sent status message is used to indicate whether or notthe message data was sent successfully.

If data arrives on host drivers 10 from host device 8 that is meant forclient configuration application 4, host drivers 10 can send a message“data arrival” through interface 12. Client configuration application 4through interface 12 can then send a receive command to obtain the datathat has arrived from host device 8.

Using the above messages and commands, data can be sent and retrievedfrom client 15 on host device 8. This continues until the host device 8is disconnected from the configuration device 2. Upon disconnect, hostdrivers 10 send a message “device status (disconnected)” to interface 12which lets client configuration application 4 know that it can no longerconfigure client 15.

Client configuration application 4 then sends a stop command to hostdrivers 10 that it is no longer communicating with host drivers 10.

Based on the above, interface 12 provides an abstract layer betweenclient configuration application 4 and host drivers 10 which allowscommunications to and from a client 15 on a host device 8 without havingto modify client configuration application 4.

While the relationship between a client and a host on host device 8 caninclude a variety of configurations that would be known to those skilledin the art, in one embodiment the client 15 and host are divided into anarchitecture that includes client applications 20 for client 15 runningon top of a virtual machine 22. Reference is now made to FIG. 3.

Client applications 20 can be any application that is designed to run ona virtual machine 22. In the example of FIG. 3, these could include amessages application 31 for viewing messages that have been received, acontacts application 32, which presents an address book including phonenumbers, e-mail addresses or other contact information for individualsor companies, a calendar application 33 for scheduling appointments andmanaging time, a browser application 34 for browsing the internet orother network, a compose-message application 35 to compose messages forSMS or e-mail, a save-messages application 36 to view messages that havebeen saved, a search-messages application 37 to search for a particularmessage, a lock application 38 to lock the keyboard and screen of themobile device, and a set-up application 39 to change the set-upconfiguration for client 15. Other applications 30 could also exist aspart of client applications 20 and the above-listed applications are notmeant to be limiting. Further, other clients besides client 15 couldexist on host device 8 and these other clients could have applications29 which could be invoked from application 30.

Virtual machine 22 is preferably started at power-up of host device 8and stays running no matter what. In one preferred embodiment, virtualmachine 22 is a JAVA virtual machine and client applications 20 are JAVAapplications.

All client applications 20 use virtual machine 22 to invoke instances ofobjects created by client applications 20.

A feature such as a hardware call from client applications 20 wouldnormally go through client OS 24. Client OS 24 includes a number ofprimitives for interacting with hardware. However, in the case thatclient applications 20 are built onto a host device, it is preferablethat instead of interacting with features directly, client OS 24interacts with the host abstraction layer 26. Host abstraction layer 26converts calls from client applications 20 to host calls through anative interface 28. Native interface 28 invokes host applications 40 inorder to use the host-dependent features on the host device.

In order to start one of the above applications, it is desirable that aclient application can be activated from a host application 40. When anapplication is selected in the host environment, a client applicationselection application 48 uses a set of application program interfaces(APIs) by which the host operating system can request a clientapplication 20 to activate.

Client application selection application 48 uses a client abstractionlayer 50 to activate an application within client applications 20.Client application selection application 48 calls a function that istranslated in client abstraction layer 50. Client abstraction layer 50then uses virtual machine 22 to activate a client application 20.

Client abstraction layer 50, in alternative embodiments, can eitherinject the client OS 24 event into virtual machine 22 which causes theselected client application 20 to become active or, alternatively,performs a “reverse-native call”, either through client OS 24 or viaclient connect 52 to manipulate the native representation of some clientobject which causes the selected client application 20 to become active.

In the configuration of a client 15 on a host device 8, a clientapplication 20 for configuring client 15 can be started and can use datareceived from configuration device 2 to configure client 15. This clientcan be started as a result of a call from host driver 10 onconfiguration device 2. This call is received by host device 2 andthrough a client application selection application 40 starts a clientapplication 20 for configuring client 15.

Reference is now made to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustratinga host mobile station including preferred embodiments of the techniquesof the present application. Mobile station 1100 is preferably a two-waywireless communication device having at least voice and datacommunication capabilities. Mobile station 1100 preferably has thecapability to communicate with other computer systems on the Internet.Depending on the exact functionality provided, the wireless device maybe referred to as a data messaging device, a two-way pager, a wirelesse-mail device, a cellular telephone with data messaging capabilities, awireless Internet appliance, or a data communication device, asexamples.

Where mobile station 1100 is enabled for two-way communication, it willincorporate a communication subsystem 1111, including both a receiver1112 and a transmitter 1114, as well as associated components such asone or more, preferably embedded or internal, antenna elements 1116 and1118, local oscillators (LOs) 1113, and a processing module such as adigital signal processor (DSP) 1120. As will be apparent to thoseskilled in the field of communications, the particular design of thecommunication subsystem 1111 will be dependent upon the communicationnetwork in which the device is intended to operate. For example, mobilestation 1100 may include a communication subsystem 1111 designed tooperate within the Mobitex™ mobile communication system, the DataTAC™mobile communication system, GPRS network, UMTS network, EDGE network orCDMA network.

Network access requirements will also vary depending upon the type ofnetwork 1119. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks, mobilestation 1100 is registered on the network using a unique identificationnumber associated with each mobile station. In UMTS and GPRS networks,and in some CDMA networks, however, network access is associated with asubscriber or user of mobile station 1100. A GPRS mobile stationtherefore requires a subscriber identity module (SIM) card in order tooperate on a GPRS network, and a RUIM in order to operate on some CDMAnetworks. Without a valid SIM/RUIM card, a GPRS/UMTS/CDMA mobile stationmay not be fully functional. Local or non-network communicationfunctions, as well as legally required functions (if any) such as “911”emergency calling, may be available, but mobile station 1100 will beunable to carry out any other functions involving communications overthe network 1100. The SIM/RUIM interface 1144 is normally similar to acard-slot into which a SIM/RUIM card can be inserted and ejected like adiskette or PCMCIA card. The SIM/RUIM card can have approximately 64K ofmemory and hold many key configuration 1151, and other information 1153such as identification, and subscriber related information.

When required network registration or activation procedures have beencompleted, mobile station 1100 may send and receive communicationsignals over the network 1119. Signals received by antenna 1116 throughcommunication network 1119 are input to receiver 1112, which may performsuch common receiver functions as signal amplification, frequency downconversion, filtering, channel selection and the like, and in theexample system shown in FIG. 4, analog to digital (A/D) conversion. A/Dconversion of a received signal allows more complex communicationfunctions such as demodulation and decoding to be performed in the DSP1120. In a similar manner, signals to be transmitted are processed,including modulation and encoding for example, by DSP 1120 and input totransmitter 1114 for digital to analog conversion, frequency upconversion, filtering, amplification and transmission over thecommunication network 1119 via antenna 1118. DSP 1120 not only processescommunication signals, but also provides for receiver and transmittercontrol. For example, the gains applied to communication signals inreceiver 1112 and transmitter 1114 may be adaptively controlled throughautomatic gain control algorithms implemented in DSP 1120.

Network 1119 may further communicate with multiple systems (not shown).For example, network 1119 may communicate with both an enterprise systemand a web client system in order to accommodate various clients withvarious service levels.

Mobile station 1100 preferably includes a microprocessor 1138 whichcontrols the overall operation of the device. Communication functions,including at least data and voice communications, are performed throughcommunication subsystem 1111. Microprocessor 1138 also interacts withfurther device subsystems such as the display 1122, flash memory 1124,random access memory (RAM) 1126, auxiliary input/output (I/O) subsystems1128, serial port 1130, keyboard 1132, speaker 1134, microphone 1136, ashort-range communications subsystem 1140 and any other devicesubsystems generally designated as 1142.

Some of the subsystems shown in FIG. 4 perform communication-relatedfunctions, whereas other subsystems may provide “resident” or on-devicefunctions. Notably, some subsystems, such as keyboard 1132 and display1122, for example, may be used for both communication-related functions,such as entering a text message for transmission over a communicationnetwork, and device-resident functions such as a calculator or tasklist.

Operating system software used by the microprocessor 1138 is preferablystored in a persistent store such as flash memory 1124, which mayinstead be a read-only memory (ROM) or similar storage element (notshown). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the operatingsystem, specific device applications, or parts thereof, may betemporarily loaded into a volatile memory such as RAM 1126. Receivedcommunication signals may also be stored in RAM 1126.

As shown, flash memory 1124 can be segregated into different areas forboth computer programs 1158 and program data storage 1150, 1152, 1154and 1156. These different storage types indicate that each program canallocate a portion of flash memory 1124 for their own data storagerequirements. Microprocessor 1138, in addition to its operating systemfunctions, preferably enables execution of software applications on themobile station. A predetermined set of applications that control basicoperations, including at least data and voice communication applicationsfor example, will normally be installed on mobile station 1100 duringmanufacturing. A preferred software application may be a personalinformation manager (PIM) application having the ability to organize andmanage data items relating to the user of the mobile station such as,but not limited to, e-mail, calendar events, voice mails, appointments,and task items. Naturally, one or more memory stores would be availableon the mobile station to facilitate storage of PIM data items. Such PIMapplication would preferably have the ability to send and receive dataitems, via the wireless network 1119. In a preferred embodiment, the PIMdata items are seamlessly integrated, synchronized and updated, via thewireless network 1119, with the mobile station user's corresponding dataitems stored or associated with a host computer system. Furtherapplications may also be loaded onto the mobile station 1100 through thenetwork 1119, an auxiliary I/O subsystem 1128, serial port 1130,short-range communications subsystem 1140 or any other suitablesubsystem 1142, and installed by a user in the RAM 1126 or preferably anon-volatile store (not shown) for execution by the microprocessor 1138.Such flexibility in application installation increases the functionalityof the device and may provide enhanced on-device functions,communication-related functions, or both. For example, securecommunication applications may enable electronic commerce functions andother such financial transactions to be performed using the mobilestation 1100.

In a data communication mode, a received signal such as a text messageor web page download will be processed by the communication subsystem1111 and input to the microprocessor 1138, which preferably furtherprocesses the received signal for output to the display 1122, oralternatively to an auxiliary I/O device 1128. A user of mobile station1100 may also compose data items such as email messages for example,using the keyboard 1132, which is preferably a complete alphanumerickeyboard or telephone-type keypad, in conjunction with the display 1122and possibly an auxiliary I/O device 1128. Such composed items may thenbe transmitted over a communication network through the communicationsubsystem 1111.

For voice communications, overall operation of mobile station 1100 issimilar, except that received signals would preferably be output to aspeaker 1134 and signals for transmission would be generated by amicrophone 1136. Alternative voice or audio I/O subsystems, such as avoice message recording subsystem, may also be implemented on mobilestation 1100. Although voice or audio signal output is preferablyaccomplished primarily through the speaker 1134, display 1122 may alsobe used to provide an indication of the identity of a calling party, theduration of a voice call, or other voice call related information forexample.

Serial port 1130 in FIG. 4 would normally be implemented in a personaldigital assistant (PDA)-type mobile station for which synchronizationwith a user's desktop computer as outline above. Such a port 1130enables a user to set preferences through an external device or softwareapplication and would extend the capabilities of mobile station 1100 byproviding for information or software downloads to mobile station 1100other than through a wireless communication network. As indicated above,the alternate download path may for example be used to load anencryption key onto the device through a direct and thus reliable andtrusted connection to thereby enable secure device communication.

Other communications subsystems 1140, such as a short-rangecommunications subsystem, is a further optional component which mayprovide for communication between mobile station 1100 and differentsystems or devices, which need not necessarily be similar devices. Forexample, the subsystem 1140 may include an infrared device andassociated circuits and components or a Bluetooth™ communication moduleto provide for communication with similarly enabled systems and devices.

The above-described embodiments are meant to be illustrative ofpreferred embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of thepresent application. Also, various modifications, which would be readilyapparent to one skilled in the art, are intended to be within the scopeof the present application. The only limitations to the scope of thepresent application are set forth in the following claims.

1. A system for configuring a client on host devices, the systemcomprising: a link between a configuring device and each host device; aconfiguration application on the configuring device to configure one ormore parameters of the client on host devices; host drivers forcommunicating between the each of the host devices and the configuringdevice over the link; and an interface between the host drivers and theconfiguration application, the interface configured to convertinstructions from the configuration application into instructionsuseable by the host drivers for communicating with the each of the hostdevices, wherein when a first one of the host devices is connected tothe configuring device, a first implementation of the interface promotesthe configuration application configuring the client on the first one ofthe host devices via a first one of the host drivers and when a secondone of the host devices is connected to the configuring device, a secondimplementation of the interface promotes the configuration applicationconfiguring the client on the second one of the host devices via asecond one of the host drivers.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein thelink is selected from the group consisting of: a Bluetooth connection;an IrDA connection; and a physical serial link.
 3. The system of claim1, wherein the configuring device is a personal computer.
 4. The systemof claim 1, wherein one of the host devices is a mobile station.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4, wherein the client is a data client.
 6. The system ofclaim 5, wherein configuring the client includes setting an encryptionkey.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein configuring the client includesbacking up and restoring data.
 8. The system of claim 5, whereinconfiguring the client includes setting parameters in a service book. 9.The system of claim 1, wherein the each of the host devices includes adivided architecture comprising: client applications; host applications;a virtual machine for the client applications; and an interface betweenthe host applications and client applications allowing the clientapplications to start the host applications and the host applications tostart the client applications using the virtual machine, wherein thehost drivers use one of the host applications to start one of the clientapplications to configure the client.
 10. A computer-implemented methodfor configuring a client on host devices, the method comprising thesteps of: providing a configuration application on a configurationdevice to configure one or more parameters of the client on the hostdevices; linking each host device and the configuration device; adding aset of host drivers to the configuration device specific for the hostdevices and link; and providing an interface between the configurationapplication and the set of host drivers, the interface being adapted tocommunicate with the host drivers, the interface configured to convertinstructions from the configuration application into instructionsuseable by each of the host drivers such that when a first one of thehost devices is connected to the configuring device, a firstimplementation of the interface promotes the configuration applicationconfiguring the client on the first one of the host devices via a firstone of the host drivers and when a second one of the host devices isconnected to the configuring device, a second implementation of theinterface promotes the configuration application configuring the clienton the second one of the host devices via a second one of the hostdrivers.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein one of the host devices isa mobile device.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the client is adata client.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein configuring the clientinvolves setting an encryption key.
 14. The method of claim 12, whereinconfiguring the client involves setting an server identifier.
 15. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein configuring the client includes backing upand restoring data.